This gallery contains 5 photos.
For me 2011 really has been a pretty shitty year. I am going to try and put it into a timeline of personal shittyness. Not every blog can be fun in the sun. Continue reading
This gallery contains 5 photos.
For me 2011 really has been a pretty shitty year. I am going to try and put it into a timeline of personal shittyness. Not every blog can be fun in the sun. Continue reading
I was awakened by the phone ringing. I reached over to grab the headset which was making a god awful noise combined with a awful blipping red light. When I finally scrabbled my way to the other side of the bed … Continue reading
I have pined over it for all this time, but now I have had enough time to realise that I don’t actually want one. At least not the first generation one… I think many people, myself included, have been wondering … Continue reading
Here I sit watching the best of Tropfest 2010 wrestling heavy eyeballs trying to get to the last wee hours of daylight saving before the clock gets cranked back to normal, when seriously all I am actually doing is waiting … Continue reading
I have been reading about it, dreaming of it, pondering purchasing, interpretting Jobs’ reality distortion field and generally weighing up the pros and cons about the illusive iPad. And I have decided what you will most likely do with it … Continue reading
Have you heard about the latest buzz word, yeah Google Buzz is the buzz and I have no idea why I need, let alone want it.
I signed up for a Gmail so I could enter competitions, sign up for pointless crap and generally give it to anyone I never wanted to find me so that all the telemarketers and internet marketers could send their rubbish their and I would never have to bother with it.
So when I found out about Buzz I thought I better check it out and find out if it offered me any real value, but of course I missed the boat. I didn’t have anyone in my contact list that I remotely wanted to connect with and so my Buzz doing a hostile takeover of my Gmail and adding everyone I emailed offered zero value to me.
I ended up with the most boring Buzz list ever, a grand total of three people autoconnected to me. Wow. I am freaking out about how cool this thing is right now. So I followed a few key journo’s and social media gurus who were all postulating on the possibilities and pathetic-ness of this new attempt to pull the reigns in on social media but after a few weeks I have totally decided that I just don’t give a shit. Not one little bit.
I have been a Facebook junky, it has purpose, in fact many purposes and I can use it how I like. Or not, whatever the case may be. Twitter is fun and connects me with the world and has an immediacy when things happen, like MJ getting snuffed, or when the iPad was released. It’s currently racing towards ten billion tweets so it must have captured a few peoples imagination.
About the best thing I can think of about Google Buzz, are the videos being created. Look at the gobsmacking quality of this launch video from the Search Giants. Got much money to through at PR? Hmm?
But this one really sums it up quite well. Google is taking over the entire planet and there is no stopping them.
Like a moth to a flame, a social media network to a digital native or an iPhone to touch-screen to a geek, Google want in on everything that is going and they ain’t afraid to beg, borrow, steal or do a complete hostile takeover of the digital devide if necessary but they seem to be fucking it it up, pardon the language, mostly of recent attempts.
And this is after the failed attempt that was or is Google Wave. I mean what the hell did that actually do? They said it was going to replace email. Um yeah, like that was going to happen.
I really really, really wanted to like Wave. It thought it was going to be super-awesome. But after fumbling around pointlessly with that for a few months, dying for an ‘invitation’ at first made it appear all the more important to get, but ended up as a shite way for a Beta test.
Then I thought, no hang on, it has to be useful doesnt it? Google created it! It must be super-awesome! So I convinced a bunch of work colleagues to sign in sign up and sent out invitations for a Wave collaborative creative session.
It was so dam confusing and the notification process was non existant, oh that’s right because it replaces email, that no one knew when we were going to be online and sharing or even if someone had posted something for your to see.
So we thought, lets all sign in at the start of the day and then sit there and watch it in real time. Cause that sounds like fun right? Hell no.
We started telling each other stories off-line using email about whether you were signed in and had seen this video (insert link from email) and then realising that it was just utter non sensical, un-user friendly rubbish.
But again, the videos are amazing. This Wave of Pulp Fiction is jaw dropping. Pity the real thing isn’t anything like it.
Now if you were really interested in what is going on in the world then you would know that this is really what it is actually all about.
I swear this is the best video ever made in the whole world.
From the moment the curtain rolls back Scorsese sets the scene for the next two and half hours, it is dense, tense, dark and supposedly a bit scary. Continue reading
My latest piece is for a buddy’s band. They are of course The Blow Waves, if anyone out there knows me knows that I have been following and supporting these guys for the last 3 something years as they strive … Continue reading

iPod bog standard plugs
I have spent my fair share of money on headphones.
In face it has occurred to me recently that headphones, in my case are like shoes and jackets. You can never have too many different kinds.
What also occurred to me recently that I have mistakenly been tricking myself into headphone complacency. Not only do I not give a shit anymore, I will put up with such utter crap performance that I deserve to have fallen off the face of the music scene and retire into a comfy chair with my slippers one, listening to my over priced ridiculously kitch B&O home stereo. After a spot of croquet.
The Apple standard headphones that come with any iPod and now iPhone are just ok.They aren’t shit, but they aren’t fucking fantastic either. And this is my land of complacency. I had been telling myself it was a decent enough sacrifice on sound quality and form over function. You can turn the music or phone on and off. Yippee.

Sennheiser CX 300
But they get ripped out by anything coming with in a bees dick of a whisper near your cord and in actual fact mine just fall out by themselves all the time.
And there is no such thing as bass response unless you are jamming the dam things so far into your canal with your thumbs that it really isnt safe or healthy.
Another $100 later, there come the Sennheiser CX-300, widely touted and written about as great little headphones.
But do you really want to shove these things into the pits of your canals?

Sony MDR 7506
If you do, can you actually really honestly tell me, that that feels Comfortable. Yes with a capital C. Comfortable?
I don’t bloody think so, these things really squish into your ear with their plush plastic whatever polymer surround, and the bass is vastly better than the iPod standards but comfortable? No.
And the cable becomes some sort of trasnporter for every vibration and jiggle of it, so that sounds like those made in the Star Wars movies are constantly interrupting my sweet tunes. No thanks. We want silent operating cables that glue to our head and plugs that dont fall out but don’t feel like too much ear wax.

Bose overear Headphones
So at some stage I thought it must be time to get serious. Serious fucking headphones. Those ones that you see in all the film clips in studios. Big mofo cans that cup over your whole dam ear and immerse in studio quality sound. For a lot of money. That’s right, when it comes to the big daddy of earphones in the music industry many a professional that the industry standard with the best lows and highest highs are the Sony MDY 7506 Studio Monitor headphones. So I bought some. They sound amazing. Period.
But do I really want to walk the streets of my inner western suburb with doof doof domes advertising that I truly am worth rolling for more than just my sneakers?
No, not really and that is how I feel when I am wearing them anywhere but in the comfort of my own home now and then, like a bulls-eye I wear them over each ear.
But just to be sure I am not convinced yet and so I have to go and spend another exorbitant absurb amount on a set of the best Bose headphones you can find. And they are somewhat smaller than the Sony versions and the sound quality is quite excellent, different and not as honest as the Sony, but deep and sweet and worthy of your favourite tracks to be sure, but do I need to wear these down the road either? I would roll me for a pair of these fuckers.

No & Olufsen. Just no.
So what do I want? I just want to whinge that I have spent an enormous amount of money on ridiculous headphones from all across the world and apart from the ridiculous Bang & Olufsen attachments that I haven’t tried, I am at a complete loss for a decent set of headphones to wear at most of the times.
Do the perfect headphones exist?
Can I have some please?

Michael Jackson strikes 'that' pose from Billie Jean
It was just one of those days yesterday.
First Farrah, then Michael and then the stupid twisted rumors that Jeff Goldblum had also suffered a fatal climbing accident while on set in NZ but of course that was just a hoax.
While I was saddened about Farrah Fawcett I was also moved by her plight to enlighten the world with her tragic experience through cancer, I thought it was gutsy and showed great character, but ultimately I was as ready for her demise as she obviously was.
Michael Jackson’s death was a complete and unexpected shock by contrast. The news broke in Australia early Friday 26 June, around 8am I saw a post on Facebook then logged in to Twitter to see the gazillions of tweets start piling up. Within seconds they were in their thousands. It was true, the self proclaimed King of Pop was dead.
I idolised MJ as a child and spent countless hours in front of the chunky old piece of furniture that was our TV back then, practising the zombie dance in Thriller, the moonwalk from Billie Jean and every single step I could possibly mimic. I actually thought I was pretty good and would probably end up as one of his dancers one day touring the world in his entourage.
I still have Thriller on vinyl. I am deeply saddened and in a funny way disgusted in myself for not supporting him more in recent times which is a weird feeling. One of those – you-only-know-what-you’ve-got-when-it’s-gone kind of feelings. I truly get choked with waves of sadness when I see the appalling reports and gross distortions of his life that are now flooding our airwaves. His face sliding off, wearing face masks and holding little boys hands while wearing pajamas, defending his thoughts about how normal it might be to have children sleep in bed with him.
All of it is a reflection of his life, and a lot of it may seem utterly bizarre but I think most of it is just out of context. I believe he had an extraordinary life that was filled with sadness in the end. I don’t think he actually agreed to do 50 shows on his return to the stage at the O2 arena in London, but that promoters blew it out to that and it was outside of his control. He was a weakening older frail looking man in his last few appearances leading up to his death that I was aware of, preferring a life of recluse while preparing for his comeback tours.
I am even more saddened by the news reports that are now flooding the internet, almost grinding it to a halt, the sketchy exposes we will be subjected to over the next days, weeks, months already outrage me and I can only hope that now, in death, poor Michael can finally find some ultimate peace. He will live on in my heart for the rest of my years as a true musical genius – a pioneer of incredible dance moves – a fashionista – something of a freak – and someone who was most of all completely misunderstood.